Gunmen Kill Unicef Worker in Somalia

By REUTERS

Published: October 20, 2008

Gunmen killed a Somali man working for Unicef on Sunday, just days after another local employee of the United Nations was killed.

In the attack on Sunday, three men armed with pistols and assault rifles ambushed the Unicef employee as he was walking in the southern town of Hudur, shooting him several times in the head, witnesses said.

The attack came two days after another United Nations worker was murdered as he left a mosque in the central town of Merka.

Fighting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, has escalated recently. Insurgents have attacked local people working with foreign aid agencies, after most international staff members left the country.

Separately, the Somali prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, speaking in Mogadishu on Sunday, said his government needed international assistance to stem piracy off the Somali coast.

Pirates are currently holding dozens of ships, including a Ukrainian vessel carrying weapons bound for Kenya.